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Team SMG have officially announced their complete Dota 2 roster just in time for the offseason deadline. The team took to Twitter to confirm the news ahead of the 2023 DPC season.
“Hey. We’re back,” Team SMG tweeted.
“Team SMG finalise their roster, and hereby announce our partaking in the upcoming DPC season.
“Good luck SEA, you’ll need it.”
In a follow up thread, Team SMG listed the 2023 roster with two new signings and three returning players from the 2022 roster. The complete squad features Lee “CDR” Jia He, Kam “MooN” Boon Seng, Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng, Tue “ah fu” Soon Chuan, and Marvin “Xavius” Rushton.
While Team SMG looked good prior to The International 2022, they ended the season on a poor note. The team looked to advance past the TI11 regional qualifiers with the signing of Wilson “poloson” Koh Chin Wei and veteran Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang. However, SMG fell short when they failed to submit their roster on time.
After missing out on The International tournament, the team parted ways with iceiceice and poloson in October and November, respectively. The release of both players led to the signing of CDR in position one and Xavius in position five.
In order to create an opening for CDR, MidOne will be transitioning into position three while CDR takes on the position one spot. MidOne will have no problem playing the role, as that used to be his position in his days with OG.
Having joined OG in 2020, MidOne was tasked with playing in position three. With MidOne making way for CDR, the 25-year-old will be manning the safe lane alongside Xavius.
While CDR is only a year into his career, Xavius, on the other hand, has represented quite a number of esports teams since 2015. The 29-year-old joined Team SMG after a good run with Polaris Esports, who made their way to the Last Chance Qualifiers for TI11.
Polaris had a good outing, surpassing expectations as they made it out of the group stage and made an appearance in the upper bracket. However, their run ended after they were demoted to the lower bracket by Team Liquid and then defeated by Wildcard Gaming in two rounds.
Team SMG’s previous roster was unable to compete due to missing submission deadline. The 2023 roster will be expected to improve on last season’s results.
